The US has expressed serious concern over an increase in anti-conversion laws, hate speech, and the demolition of homes and places of worship for minority faith communities in India. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken made the remarks at releasing the annual State Department report on international religious freedom.
The senior US officials consistently raised religious freedom issues with their Indian counterparts throughout 2023. In India, we see a concerning increase in anti-conversion laws, hate speech, demolitions of homes and places of worship for members of minority faith communities. At the same time, people worldwide are also working hard to protect religious freedom, Blinken said.
The US State Department said that Christians and Muslims were arrested under laws banning forced religious conversions, which religious groups said were to harass and imprison members of religious minority groups on false and fabricated charges or for lawful religious practices.
Narendra Modi’s call to enact a Uniform Civil Code (UCC) across the country instead of a system of separate personal laws for religious communities has seen opposition.
Muslim, Sikh, Christian, and tribal leaders and some state government officials opposed the initiative on the grounds it was part of a project to turn the country into a Hindu Rashtra, a Hindu nation.
The Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC) welcomed the report, echoing the findings of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), which has repeatedly urged the State Department to designate India as a “Country of Particular Concern (CPC)” due to severe violations of religious freedoms for minorities.
“Once again, it is clear from the State Department’s reporting that India more than qualifies as a CPC,” said IAMC executive director Rasheed Ahmed. He urged Secretary Blinken to act on these findings and designate India as a CPC, emphasizing the ongoing and severe violations of religious freedoms in the country.
Meanwhile, a Kashmiri delegation staged a protest outside the UN office in Geneva, condemning the systematic human rights violations committed by Indian forces in occupied Jammu and Kashmir. The protest, held on the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, highlighted the plight of torture victims and their families.
Altaf Hussain Wani, Sardar Amjad Yousaf, Adv. Parvez Ahmed Shah, Shamim Shawl, Dr. Waleed Rasool, Ms. Gazala Habib, Ms. Haiqa, and others attended and addressed the event.
Highlighting the plight of torture victims and their families, the speakers said that thousands of innocent Kashmiris including men and women experienced third-degree torture in prisons, interrogation, and detention centers.
The Indian government, they said, has remorselessly been using torture as an instrument of control to suppress Kashmiris’ legitimate struggle for the right to self-determination.
Referring to the structures of violence stretched all across the Kashmir valley and beyond in the form of military camps, they said that these military camps were virtually torture centers where innocent Kashmiris were beaten, given electric shocks, and forced to eat dirt or drink filthy water.
Terming systematic abuse by the Indian armed forces as a grave existential threat to the local population, they said brutal and inhuman torture techniques employed by Indian troops, paramilitary forces, and police personnel have left thousands of Kashmiris disabled for life. This egregious reality of Kashmir has unfortunately escaped the attention of local and international observers.
The speakers urged the UN to intervene and pressure India to stop the bloodshed, release political prisoners, and repeal draconian laws that the apartheid regime has been using to suppress political dissent and silence legitimate political voices in the UN-recognized disputed territory of Jammu and Kashmir. They also demanded reparations for victims and a fact-finding mission to investigate torture cases in the Indian illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir.